Chris Morris is another genius. There are so many clips to choose from, but this from 1994 was way ahead of its time in terms of cultural commentary (remarkable to think there were only six episodes of The Day Today).

There was a film adaptation of London Fields that sank without trace a few years ago. Beyond that, it may be me, but I cannot remember his books being recognised for years. Shame because I think he is a magnificent writer - a real virtuoso.

I am almost tempted to say Martin Amis.

Hancock was still remembered as a comedy genius in the 1990s.

David Niven

It’s a good list. As someone growing up in the late 1980s/ early 1990s, you were expected to know about these figures to be cultured. Solzhenitsyn was someone who was seen as a witness to something urgent and important about Stalinism. His modern relevance is as proto Russian nationalist.

Sounds like Boris Johnson’s 1990s Brussels correspondent articles.

For Stanley, the EU does not have agency. He moans like a banshee about queues to get into the EU but I expect he purrs at the queues for US immigration.

I am also fascinated that this was published in 30 September 2008! Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!

Dub chill out was a fantastic compilation.

Consequently, we have the same policies announced on what feels like an annual basis but never implemented, with news interviewers asking us our opinion on the latest statement, and judging the policy a success or failure based on our response. Ends

While that perspective has value, any analysis of a policy’s effect was lost in favour of treating politics as a game of who’s up or down & who is winning. Now, with the vox pops that process has extended beyond the politicians, to all of us. 2/

Slough is also one of the few boroughs that operates 12+ exams, so is an outlier in a couple or respects.

Starmer doesn't seem to realise that, if you consistently accept the way your opponents frame a question, you'll find it hard to reject the answers that they give.

If you keep telling voters that Farage is right in his analysis, it will be hard to persuade them that he's wrong in his prescriptions.